the race that should have been...

now that i have taken a week to not think about running or anything to do with the marathon, i have come to terms with it.

it should have been a good race. for all intents and purposes i was trained, fueled and ready to take the IMS Arizona Marathon head on.

two weeks before the race my ankle was super tight. like it was spring loaded. and it did not feel great. so i elevated it and did a whole lot of nothing for two straight weeks.

alright, alright. i ran 5 miles the thursday before the race to make sure i could actually still run.

low and behold my legs understood what we were doing and my foot didn't feel like it was going going to detach from my ankle and leave me crippled. so a tentative thumbs up for race day.

and then race day came.

with perfect morning weather of 45 and not so perfect afternoon weather of 71 it was time to run this race.

i started off with the 4 hour pace group and felt strong for the first 15 miles. i had dropped back from the 4 hour pace group, but was still well ahead of the 4:15 group, and i had been fueling and liquiding properly. i felt good.

and then mile 15 hit. and my right foot felt like maybe someone who was the size of an elephant carrying a rhino while tap dancing with a hippo was river dancing on the outside of my right foot. so that was fun. you're welcome for that mental image.

i had plans to meet darwin at the 23 mile mark about 3.5 or so hours in and he was going to run the last 3 with me.

hour 3 i was at mile marker 18.

without my phone.

sooo yea. there was a tracker that he could watch that i came to find out didn't actually do anything useful.

about 1.5 later i got to mile 23-24 and saw darwin running towards me. oh hi there.

he nicely walked the last 4 miles with me while i contemplated actually sobbing uncontrollably.

an hour later i was done with marathon number 3. and i couldn't be more grateful for the support that i had.

now i am taking some time off and letting my foot heal.